The firm that was in contract to buy 1,643 acres in Calverton says it will likely sue the Town of Riverhead after the town canceled the deal Tuesday.
Calverton Aviation Technology LLC, an entity headed by Canada-based Triple Five Worldwide Group, had been in contract since Nov. 2018 to purchase the property within the Enterprise Park at Calverton for $40 million.
But after the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency determined Monday that CAT had failed to provide adequate assurances of its financial capability to develop the EPCAL project, the town board voted Tuesday to void the contract.
“Riverhead and Long Island residents deserve to finally realize the economic development promise, including jobs, tax base growth and protection of quality of life, that only Calverton Enterprise Park offers the region,” Riverhead Councilman Tim Hubbard said in a town statement.
Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar called for an immediate appraisal of the Calverton property and that the cancelling of the contract with CAT allows the town to “finally move in a direction, which is beneficial to all Riverhead residents and the Long Island region.”
The Riverhead IDA accepted CAT’s application to transfer the EPCAL property from Riverhead’s Community Development Agency to the IDA in Sept. 2022, which was supposed to clear the way for the property sale to close.
CAT planned to build a sprawling corporate campus on about 600 acres of the Calverton property, which will include tenants involved in industrial aviation, aerospace, transportation, technology and logistics, among others, according to documents presented to the IDA.
While the property is zoned to accommodate 9.8 million square feet of development, the purchase agreement with the town had called for CAT to build a minimum of 1 million square feet of development at EPCAL within the first five years. For that first phase of the project, the developer said it would invest more than $200 million, employ 235 construction personnel and create an additional 117 jobs, according to its bid for IDA incentives to assist in the project.
However, CAT’s request for IDA benefits drew opposition from a group of community residents, with some fearing increased truck traffic and air traffic from the proposed development. Dozens of people who attended the IDA meeting held up signs that read “Walk Away IDA” and “This is a bad deal” cheered its determination to scrap the deal.
In response to the town voiding its sale contract, a CAT spokesman issued a statement blasting the decision.
“It is literally tragic that the Town of Riverhead has diverted the enormous economic future of Calverton and sent it to the courthouse for what will likely be years to come, and whose eventual outcome for the town will be problematic,” read the statement. “The facts, the law, and the record will demonstrate that CAT Triple Five has the legal right to develop this property and to create the promised well-paying jobs detailed in our various applications. By choosing this path with unseemly haste, the Town of Riverhead has dismissed the opportunity to fast track the creation of a 21st century economy. Instead, they have chosen a path that will further delay the enormous potential of EPCAL for what might be a generation.”
It’s been 27 years since the town took title to the 2,900-acre Calverton property, last used by the U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman for testing F14s and other military aircraft. Some 1,900 acres of it has been preserved as open space and to protect the region’s environmental health. The rest of the property was earmarked for economic development, though the town has struggled to land a deal for the site, despite fielding several ill-fated proposals over the years.
In 2008, Riverhead Resorts, a consortium headed by a residential developer from Scotland, couldn’t secure financing for its $108 million acquisition of 750 EPCAL acres and had to ditch its plan to build a recreation and entertainment resort featuring an indoor ski mountain.
The town had chosen the Riverhead Resorts proposal over a $1 billion motorsports-themed plan that would have developed a pair of racetracks, an equestrian center and timeshare living units.
In another setback in 2011, Rechler Equity Partners pulled out of its deal to pay $18 million for 300 acres where it first wanted to build an industrial park and then a mixed-use community with more than 900 residences.
Soon after, a group of Argentine investors known as International Polo Development wanted to pony up as much as $75 million to build up to six polo fields, stables, a 10,000-seat stadium, shops, restaurants and a polo museum on the site and offered $50,000 an acre, but the plan couldn’t win the favor of the town board.
In 2016, the town approved a $45.6 million sale of about 630 acres of EPCAL land to Melville-based Suffolk County Industrial, which had planned to develop an industrial park that would include industrial and office space, along with service retail and some employee housing. But the deal fell apart, prompting the town to seek a new buyer.
With the cancelling of the contract with CAT, the town is once again back to square one in its quest to realize economic development from the Calverton property.
Image and article originally from libn.com. Read the original article here.